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How to start a Crew?


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This summer our troop was approached by 6 youth who wanted to start a crew (half lads and half lasses.) The DE said we couldn’t start a crew, that a crew needed a CO in order to become a reality. (Preferably a bicycle shop of a cycling crew, the rifle range for a shooting crew, etc.) Our CO is willing to sponsor a crew and the DE was told as much. The kids just want to be a “High Adventure-Outdoors Crew†and not dedicated to any specific pursuit.

 

The DE has been telling us for two months that she will meet with the Pastor; our CO designated representative, but never gets around to it. School starts soon and the crew has decided to just start meeting anyway, with or without a charter. (I guess they’ll just be an outdoor club for a few months.) Is there anything the committee can do, aside from waiting for the DE who is taking her precious time, to help these kids get the all clear?

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Go to the council office, pick up a new unit application form, fill it out. Get registration forms for all youth and adults. Have everyone fill them out. Collect up the money. Take everything back to the council office and give it to the registrar. You are going to have to do that all anyway. You don't need the DE to form a crew. It's helpful to have one to help, but you don't seem to have one.

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It's like we have an evil twin crew!!! My co-advisor collected the paperwork and walked it to council HQ herself, just as Stosh described. No offense to the DE's in the audience, but of the things that hamper the start of new units, pros that think they're doing thier job by gaking more one day to reply to a CO or IH top the list.

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Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.

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Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.
Group dynamics are key here. Unlike BD's crew's last incarnation, mine started with the girls and guys "just friends". Some relationships started later, but it wasn't the pairing off scenario that everyone dreaded.

 

The other key is Venturing Leader Specific Training. Get it for your adults and any key youth who would be willing to devote the day for it.

 

You'd be best served by other advisors in your council instructing, but the syllabus is not that overwhelming that some older venturers couldn't teach it. (In a series of foibles with our University of Scouting, two of my youth took it last fall. If you were willing to pay for the flights out, they might volunteer as instructors!)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.
"Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience."

 

What an incredibly ludicrous comment. The girls around here all hunt and fish; they've been camping with their families for years, just like their brothers. They know what an outdoor experience entails; to imply that they have a romantic notion of camping w/o actual experience is just plain silly.

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Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.
So you know the youth I serve better than I do?????

 

Were you at the unload where they said that camping stinks???? Were you at the CO at the scheduled meeting times to have 2 boys show up and them tell you the girls are done camping.....

 

I don't think so..

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Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.
Yeah, NAE. BD and I aren't all that bothered about the young women who are out hunting and fishing with their families, or the ones in girl scout troops where the mom steps it up and provides a serious outdoor program. I do have a few of those, I'm sure BD wishes he had a few more.

 

We're looking to serve the young women who as girls kept watching their brothers go on outings while they were "shut out" between ages 11-13, and now need to challenge their "comfort level" before they can even relax enough to enjoy the outdoors. They've become "mall girls", and for a number of reasons it's in our nation's best interest if we can "un-Disneyfy" them at least a little.

 

If you don't have that problem in your neck of the woods, consider yourself fortunate!

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Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.
This is becoming an annual discussion for us..

 

We have a group talking about venturing again....it is 5 or 6 young ladies.....with a couple of the older guys from the troop we could make it fly again....

 

I asked one of them to give me a meeting time and place and we can get started....our Charter is still good till January.

 

I honestly don't care if it flys or not any more..... If they schedule a meeting da wife and I will show up and see how interested they really are.

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Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.
qwazse: Our church charters a Girl Scout Troop and a Boy Scout Troop. There is pretty heavy rivalry between the girls and boys; with the girls generally winning. They have won the events at Fall Camp O'ree two years running and have proudly displayed the traveling plaque in the "Scout Room" for all the boys to see. This year the girls were disappointed to learn that they have been prohibited from participating in the Fall Camp O'ree or any other Boy Scout events. Apparently the other troops complained to the camping committee when the girls won.

 

My niece runs her own trap line every year and can out "boy scout" both my son's. I think comments like BD's are just the rantings of an insecure man. Sure there are girls who like the mall, but they don't join scouts. They are boys who like the mall too and they don't join scouts either. To proclaim that someone wouldn't like camping based solely on their gender is just plain silly.

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Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.
Nice. That all the better you can do.....

Obviously your an expert on all things scouting and girl related....

 

My last crew failed because we wouldn't let the youth have sex on camp outs....the prior one failed because the girls didn't like to camp....as presented.

Accept it or don't...the facts are ta

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Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.
So insecure you can't even type "the facts". ;)

 

That seems to be the cycle I have. It even plays out on an individual level. Seen a scout sister go from being peeved at being too young to join us, to not wanting to join until her friends joined, to being caught up with cheerleading and band, to her mom dropping me a line today asking if it's too late to sign her up for our council camporee. Fortunately, it isn't, and I hope to get a moment at campfire in a couple of weeks to ask her what it would take to make venturing work for her.

 

 

It's really weird. I go from weeks wondering if I even still have a crew to weeks where they come out of the woodwork in dozens with insane plans for some riotous fun! Venturing is a much different animal than two active troops (one BSA, the other GSUSA) under the same roof.

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  • 4 months later...
Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.
if Two members start dating, one must leave the crew, make this a rule. that way they know before joining up
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Before you go to the trouble of starting a new unit have a couple of outings....been there done that....our problem has been that the young ladies like the idea not the actual experience. Our crew has folded twice in four years because of it.....the last was because we wouldn't let the couples welllllllll couple....tent together and have a romantic evening by the camp fire.
That's ridiculous. First of all the youth make the rules on public displays of affection. That implies that dating couples are part of crew life. Secondly, part of a healthy dating relationship is learning to "turn off" the intimacy switch so that you can feel like part of the group without being "owned" by your partner! Venturing is designed so the couples can hash out the ethics of dating. Thirdly, there is nothing like being in a tandem kayak for a few hours to actually find out how compatible you really are.

 

Not allowing dating couples just to avoid adults like BD having to lay down the law about sleeping arrangements is a little extreme.

 

(By the way, baggss, welcome to the forums!)

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